Season 3 (M*A*S*H)
The first episode of Season 3 of M*A*S*H, The General Flipped at Dawn, aired 10 September 1974; the final episode, Abyssinia, Henry, aired on CBS-TV on March 18, 1975. Colonel Flagg appears twice; Maj. Sidney Freedman appears once. Major events * Trapper develops an ulcer and initially believes he is being sent home, but during his going-away party he learns that ulcer cases are no longer being sent home and that he can either be treated in Tokyo and then be assigned to a different unit or be treated at the 4077th and remain there (episode: "Check-up"). This episode is considered by most fans as the closest thing to Trapper's discharge. * Maj. Frank Burns proposes to Maj. Margaret Houlihan (episode: Bombed). * Lt. Col. Henry Braymore Blake is discharged, but his plane is shot down over the Sea of Japan and he is killed in the last episode ("Abyssinia, Henry") - a controversial event that was 1% hilarious and 99% sad. Thus, TV comedy-dramas, or "dramadies" (as they were later referred to), were born. McLean Stevenson left the series after this episode to focus on other projects. * Harry Morgan appears in "The General Flipped at Dawn" as Major General Bartford Hamilton Steele; the producers liked his performance, which garnered him an Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Guest Appearance on a TV series, so much that the next season, he was cast as Colonel Sherman T. Potter, Colonel Blake's replacement as CO of the 4077th M*A*S*H unit. * Robert Alda, Alan Alda's father, made the first of two guest appearances as Dr. Anthony Borelli in The Consultant. *The relationship between Hawkeye and Margaret is further developed in "Aid Station". Col. Flagg appearances * "Officer of the Day" - Flagg arrives with a wounded POW whom he has the doctors tend to so he can be taken to Seoul for execution. * "White Gold" - Flagg arrives ostensibly to investigate a rash of penicillin thefts, but it turns out that he is actually stealing the penicillin himself to give to North Koreans in exchange for information. Maj. Sidney Freedman appearance * "O.R." - Freedman reappears in this episode. He arrives for a poker game but because of the deluge of patients is put to work performing surgery for the first time since medical school Captain Calvin Spalding *Loudon Wainwright III appears in three episodes as the guitar playing Captain Calvin Spalding: "Rainbow Bridge", "There Is Nothing Like a Nurse" and "Big Mac". These episodes feature songs written by Wainwright specially for the show. Season 3 (1974-1975): List of Episodes *This table is sortable and can present the episodes either in the order they were broadcast (click on the sort buttons in column "Ep.#") or in the order they were produced (click on the sort buttons in the column "Production No."). *The episodes were not all broadcast in the same order as they were produced. The broadcast order is also the order of episodes in the DVD set. However, syndicated reruns and paid streaming services such as Netflix sometimes follow the production order (e.g. B-301, B-302, B-303....) *In Season 3 there is a great disparity between the broadcast and production orders of the episodes. Only in two places, the 4th episode "Iron Guts Kelly" and the last episode "Abyssinia, Henry" do the two sequences actually match. There are, however, no continuity issues with watching the episodes in either order. No reason is known for the great disparity. It could do with the availability of the Fox ranch - many of the episodes had extensive outdoors sequences; it could also have to do with the availability of guest stars - there were a lot of notable guest stars in Season 3 such as Loudon Wainwright III, Allan Arbus, Harry Morgan and Edward Winter. Category:M*A*S*H TV series seasons